Smith also said:
 Quote:
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What improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconveniency to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.
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It is not the sheer fact of taxes and regulation, but the fact that it is extremely hard to balance them correctly even when we want to.. they can sometimes create more imbalances than they hope to resolve. Why should a "productive person" pay a higher proportion of tax than Paris Hilton, or the hedge-fund dudes who pocketed billions at reduced tax rates while their funds imploded? The pendulum has swung too far to the right in this.
I can understand the 'invisible hand' arguments. I just want to see them come out more frequently when the recipients of largess are the homebuilders or the oil companies or the sports stadiums or KBR or insurers or pharma or the investment banks, etc. etc. Is that too much to ask?
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